The Undergraduate Senate (UGS) postponed a bill to certify the Associated Students of Stanford University (ASSU) election to next week, tabled a bill to expel former UGS co-chair Ivy Chen ’26 M.A. ’27 from the UGS and heard from representatives for Synergy and Terra, two cooperative houses (co-ops) the University plans to turn into self-ops for the next academic year, at their Wednesday meeting.
The UGS unanimously voted to approve a resolution affirming the UGS’s authority to certify specific portions of the 2025 ASSU election. On Monday, the Graduate Student Council’s (GSC) voted to call for a new election, citing a violation of election notice requirements, which require advertising in The Daily, mass flyers or sending out the elections handbook.
The resolution asserts the UGS’s authority to certify the UGS and undergraduate class presidential elections as well as all undergraduate-only annual grants and undergraduate portions of joint annual grants.
The resolution also defers certification of the ASSU Executive Slate until further joint deliberation with the GSC and directs the Elections Commision to not schedule a new election for any undergraduate-impacted ballot items until the election is invalidated by two-thirds of the UGS in addition to the GSC.
In the resolution, the UGS “acknowledges the concerns raised” by the GSC regarding election certification at their Monday meeting. During the meeting, UGS appropriations chair David Sengthay ’26 M.A. ’26 recognized the recent petition filed by Ava Brown ’26 and Will Berriman ’26, the winning ASSU Executive Slate, against the ASSU Constitutional Council regarding the GSC’s failure to certify the election results.
The petition alleges that the decision “violates the ASSU Constitution and ASSU Joint Bylaws, as it is not grounded in any constitutional provision or bylaw-defined criteria for invalidation” based on a failure to meet standards for voter fraud and voter disenfranchisement.
In a statement to The Daily, Brown and Berriman shared that, in a meeting with two UGS senators, they were told that “the GSC’s inaction to certify the election has ‘tied the hands” of UGS leadership.’”
“This represents a serious breach of the independence of the Undergraduate Senate,” Brown and Berriman wrote. “To date, no one — neither the Graduate Student Council (GSC) nor the Undergraduate Senate (UGS) — has disputed the integrity of our campaign and our actions during it.”
The UGS plans to vote on certifying the undergraduate portions of the election highlighted in the resolution next week.
The UGS also heard from representatives of co-ops Synergy and Terra on threats from the University to turn the two spaces into self-ops.
Co-ops are residences where house members spend two to six hours a week performing house jobs such as cooking, washing dishes and cleaning, according to the Residential and Dining Enterprises (R&DE) website. Self-ops, by contrast, have a dedicated chef and custodial service on weekdays.
After failing to attract enough pre-assignees to fill the houses, Residential Assistants (RAs) in Terra and Synergy were informed that both houses would be converted into self-ops.
Jules Gittin ’26, a current Synergy resident and future Synergy RA argued at the meeting that the Terra and Synergy situation was different from the Delta Delta Delta (Tri Delta) sorority losing their house because co-ops have specific “relationships to their house.”
“[The] difference from the situation with Tri Delt is that the labor and the caretaking of the houses is what builds the co-op community, so it can’t really function the same,” Gittin said.
At the UGS meeting, representatives for Synergy and Terra urged the UGS to consider a resolution to support the co-op status of the two houses and press the University on the decision at the Faculty Senate meeting tomorrow.
“These communities are not just houses. They’re not just places that we put our bags down and we sleep at night. They are homes,” Gittin said.“The desire to live in a co-op comes from a desire [to take control] over your own life, over your own decision making.”
The UGS also tabled a bill attempting to expel former senator Chen from the governing body. Chen ultimately resigned shortly before the UGS meeting last week, prompting the UGS to discuss amending the bill to expel Chen into a censureship bill.
ASSU President Diego Kagurabadza ’25 shared he had not yet had the opportunity to amend the bill to a censureship. “I also have a little reservation about setting a precedent that the Senate can censure non-members,” Kagurabadza said.
The UGS unanimously voted to table the bill with one abstention.